3 Ways Marketing Organizations Can Make Data More Actionable

Optimizing every customer experience to be useful and engaging at every touch point is a marketing imperative in today’s multi-channel, multi-screen world. Customers demand consistently superb experiences, and CEOs expect marketing executives to deliver them.

Data, of course, is key to maximizing every customer experience. But the data an organization collects will be useful only if it is interpreted accurately and made actionable. That requires data and insights to be shared and understood across the organization.

Just because marketing managers and analytics teams all have access to the same data sets and use the same tools doesn’t mean everyone “gets” the story that the data is telling. Misinterpretation can easily lead an organization down the wrong path.

The whole organization has to collaborate in order to connect the dots, communicate the meaning and impact of the insights surfaced by the data, and come up with solutions that drive improved customer experiences.

To become better data storytellers—who turn insights into action—marketing organizations should follow these three steps:

1. Organize

Silos prevent many organizations from reaching current and potential customers because they impede the integration of customer data. According to a recent Harvard Business Review survey, silos represent “the biggest barriers to improving customer experience and best-in-class companies—those with strong financial performance and competitive customer experiences—are more likely to have broken down those silos than are other organizations.”

Silos aren’t just organizational; data silos are created when marketers and analysts don’t use the same tools.

Whether caused by organizational structures or the use of different tools, silos must be taken down if an organization is to get a holistic view of the customer journey. Only when data is organized and integrated does it open up a true perspective on every touch point and allow the organization to optimize each step of the customer’s journey.

Determining how to organize data and integrate it begins with marketing having a clear understanding of the organization’s business objectives and KPIs. In that way, marketers can know the right questions to ask via analytics.

2. Visualize

After organizing and integrating data, analytics teams face the challenge of not only generating new knowledge from it but also making sure marketers and decision makers are able to quickly consume that data. And that requires data storytelling, which is essential for sharing information, gaining executive buy-in, and making recommendations to business leaders, who need to quickly process complex information in a simple way.

A critical part of making data easy to understand is visualizing it, using anything from a straightforward chart to dynamic dashboards that update in real time. Such visualizations are more than bells and whistles. “The best ones,” says Scott Berinato in a recent Harvard Business Review article, “get at some truth and move people to feel it—to see what couldn’t be seen before. To change minds. To cause action.”

Effective data visualization:

Simplifies complex information

Reduces misinterpretations of data

Promotes one data set for multiple uses (consistency)

By contrast, ineffective data visualizations misinterpret the data in some way, whether through error or bias, and that can be a serious impediment to executing on that data.

Tools can help in interpreting data for quick comprehension. For example, Google Data Studio 360, part of the Google Analytics 360 Suite, makes data quickly actionable by integrating it from multiple sources and turning it into interactive reports and dashboards with real-time collaboration. With an intuitive visual editing interface, drag-and-drop functionality, and a rich library of visualizations, it helps marketing teams more easily reveal the real story behind the data.

3. Share

Self-service processes are often offered as a way to share data across many levels of the organization and spur action. While valuable, this type of sharing doesn’t guarantee that everyone can make sense of the numbers. If the data can’t be understood, its insights cannot be acted on.

Data visualization and dashboarding tools make every bit of the organization’s vital data clearer, so all can find and share the solutions and strategies that will optimize the customer experience. Armed with the data they need, when they need it, teams can fully leverage the power of the organization’s marketing data to make better decisions. What’s more, built-in collaboration and dynamic dashboards allow teams to share ideas in real time.

With exponential volumes of data being processed and powering most C-suites, data visualization has become instrumental to quickly making sense of the most important points. It simplifies complex information so it can be understood and acted on. Because data is updated in real time, decisions aren’t being made based on outdated data.

“Real-time data is critically important. Otherwise, business leaders may be making decisions off data that is no longer relevant. The business landscape changes so quickly, and stale data may inadvertently lead to the wrong decision,” says Suzanne Mumford, head of marketing for the Google Analytics 360 Suite.

The companies that shine at optimizing the customer experience go beyond analytics and measurement. They build insights they can use, and they share those insights in ways that everyone across the organization can understand—and act on—to make every customer’s experience at every touch point the best it can be.

To learn how data visualizations and dashboards can help your marketing team share insights and make better decisions, visit the Google Analytics 360 Suite website.